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Torcy French national war cemetery at Sedan

La nécropole nationale de Torcy. © ECPAD

 

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Created during the Sedan-Carignan battles in August 1914, the national war cemetery of Torcy contains 2,909 bodies. Established in 1923, from the First World War this remembrance site holds the bodies of 2,794 French servicemen, 2,050 of which are in ossuaries, 45 Brits, 38 Russians including 29 in a collective grave, 24 Romanians including 1 in an individual grave, and 4 unknown Italians.

From the Second World War, there are eight French and six Commonwealth aviators also buried in this cemetery.

 

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Sedan
À l’est de Charleville-Mézières, D 977, D 6

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Noyers-Pont-Maugis, “La Marfée” National Cemetery (Ardennes)

Nécropole de Noyers-Pont-Maugis en Ardennes, "La Marfée". © Guillaume Pichard

 

In the town of Noyers-Pont-Maugis, “La Marfée” National Cemetery holds the remains of soldiers who died for France during the Battle of the Ardennes in August 1914 and the final offensive toward the Meuse in 1918. Established just after the battles, the cemetery was redesigned in 1920, after which it received the bodies of other soldiers buried in the sector of Sedan. Today, the cemetery holds 1,723 dead, including 1,202 in the ossuary, together with some foreigners (British and Romanian, among others). Adjoining it is a German cemetery established in 1922 where 14,055 German soldiers from the 1914-1918 war and 12,788 from the 1939-1945 war are buried.

 

 

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Noyers-Pont-Maugis

Chestres National Military Cemetery in Vouziers

Nécropole nationale de Chestres à Vouziers. © Guillaume Pichard

 

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The Chestres National Military Cemetery contains the remains of 2,902 soldiers and civilian casualties who died during the two World Wars. The cemetery was created in 1919 after the battles of Vouziers in 1918, and was expanded between 1922 and 1935 to take bodies exhumed from temporary cemeteries and isolated graves in various municipalities in the Ardennes department.

From the First World War this cemetery holds 2,484 French soldiers including 1,337 in an ossuary, 110 British soldiers, 282 Czechoslovakian soldiers including 122 in an ossuary, 124 Russian civilian prisoners, ten Belgian civilian prisoners and three British. This national military cemetery is also the resting place of two soldiers who died for France during the Second World War.

There is a monument in the cemetery to two Czechoslovakian soldiers. This monument, erected in memory of the soldiers in 1925, bears an epitaph in Czech that means: "To the memory of the legionnaires of the 21st and 22nd Czechoslovakian regiments who fell in 14-18 alongside their allied comrades in arms fighting for Freedom".

The cemetery is next to a German cemetery where 1,843 soldiers who fell in battle in the summer of 1914 and died in hospital in Vouziers, or who died during the offensives in September and October 1914, are buried.

The municipal cemetery in Vouziers has a military section containing the remains of French and Russian soldiers, along with one British and one Romanian soldier. Among these soldiers lies aviator Roland Garros in a private grave surmounted by a monument erected in his memory.

 

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Vouziers
À 30 km de Rethel. À la sortie nord de Vouziers, sur la D 947

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Summary

Eléments remarquables

Monument aux morts des 21e et 22e régiments tchécoslovaques 1914-18

Rethel French national war cemetery

La nécropole nationale de Rethel. © ECPAD

 

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The national war cemetery of Rethel contains the bodies of 3,542 French, British, Romanian and Russian soldiers who died during the First World War. Created in 1923, this war cemetery was rearranged in 1966 to hold bodies exhumed from the municipal cemetery and military cemeteries located south of Aisne. In total, 3,117 French soldiers are buried here, including 1,202 in two ossuaries. 110 Brits, 12 Romanians and 213 Russians who died during the First World War are laid to rest alongside them.

Three French soldiers who died for France during the fighting in May 1940 are also buried here, including Charles de Funès de Galzara, the brother of the famous French comedian.

 

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Rethel
Au nord de Rethel, sur la D 946

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The Vitry-le-François national cemetery

La nécropole nationale de Vitry-le-François. © ECPAD

 

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The Vitry-le-François cemetery - which was created in 1921 in order to welcome the bodies of soldiers exhumed from temporary military cemeteries and isolated graves in the Perthois area or from the town's military hospitals - brings together the bodies of nearly 4,000 soldiers who died for France, 2,558 of whom lie in an ossuary. Seven British soldiers who died between 1914 and 1918 are also buried here. The bodies of 62 French soldiers from the Second World War, who were from this area and the Haute-Marne, were also brought here.

 

Vitry-le-François was at the centre of the fighting during the first Battle of the Marne. Following the French victory, it became one of the conflict's most important relief centres. Located 60 km behind the front, this "hospital town" took in between 2,000 and 3,000 wounded in around 10 medical facilities during the major offensives.

During the war, the inhabitants of Vitry-le-François maintained the graves and welcomed and provided information to the bereaved families. A chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary was erected between 1920 and 1921. In the foundations of this monument - which stands at the centre of the cemetery - lie the mortal remains of 1,127 unknown soldiers who were exhumed from the cemeteries at Blesmes and the Mont-Moret.  There is a plaque on the dome in memory of the 304 inhabitants of Vitry who died for France between 1914 and 1918.

In April 1915, following the violent battles at the Hurlus, four soldiers were accused of intentional self-mutilation.  Tried for "abandoning their posts", they were shot at Saint-Amand-sur-Fion on the morning of 3 April 1915. The war writer Maurice Bedel, who was awarded the Prix Goncourt (French literary prize) in 1927, recounts the story of this execution. Their names were not cleared.

The remains of these four men lie in this cemetery: Lucien Mervelay, soldier with the 174th infantry regiment (RI) aged 29, Louis Grard, soldier with the 127th RI aged 22, Charles Cailleretz, private with the 8th RI aged 25 and Marcel Pollet, soldier with the 72nd RI aged 25. The bodies of the four soldiers, who were previously buried in the temporary military cemetery at Courdemanges, have lain in the ossuary of the national cemetery since August 1922.

 

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Vitry-le-François
Au sud-est de Châlons-en-Champagne, N 44

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Eléments remarquables

Chapelle-ossuaire 1914-1918

The Mont Frenet national cemetery in La Cheppe

La nécropole nationale "Le Mont Frenet". © ECPAD

 

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The Mont Frenet cemetery is one of 34 national cemeteries located in the Marne. It holds the remains of soldiers who died for France during the battles that took place in the Champagne region between 1914 and 1918. Created in 1915, this cemetery initially brought together the bodies of soldiers who had died as a result of their wounds at the 3/65 ambulance centre located at Mont Frenet. Set up at a railway junction, the centre enabled quick treatment of the wounded thanks to the Suippes-Châlons route. Located at the very site of the 3/65 ambulance centre, the cemetery holds 2,307 bodies including 2,282 French soldiers, 12 Britons, three Czechs and an American. Nine French soldiers from the Second World War are also buried here. It was extended after the war to accommodate bodies from isolated graves and some temporary military cemeteries such as Beauséjour, Tahure and Sainte-Marie-à-Py.

Among the soldiers lies Hill Stanley (1896-1918), an American volunteer who served in the ranks of the French army's medical corps. On 14 August 1918, after a month of agony, he died at La Veuve (51) as a result of his injuries.

 

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La Cheppe
Au nord-est de Châlons-sur-Marne, D 77

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Fère-Champenoise

Nécropole nationale de Fère-Champenoise. © ECPAD

 

 

Located in Les Ouches, Fère-Champenoise National Cemetery holds the remains of soldiers who died for France in the first Battle of the Marne (September 1914) and during the Campaign for France in June 1940. Established immediately after the battles that mainly took place in the Saint-Gond marshes and on the two Morin rivers, the cemetery was developed from 1919 to 1934 to accommodate the bodies of other soldiers exhumed from military cemeteries or isolated graves in the Marne, the Aube and the Haute-Marne. Since 1928, a commemorative monument has stood here, dedicated to the memory of the French soldiers killed in action from 1914 to 1918. The cemetery holds the remains of nearly 6,000 French soldiers, including over 3,000 in the ossuary, together with some foreigners (including British and Czech) killed during the First World War. In the early 1950s, this cemetery held the mortal remains of 169 Frenchmen and 3 Belgians killed in the battles of the Aisne and Champagne in May and June 1940, and during the Liberation of France in 1944.

 

 

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Fère-champenoise

Summary

Eléments remarquables

Monument aux morts 1914-1918.

Courgivaux National Cemetery

La nécropole nationale de Courgivaux. © ECPAD

 

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The Courgivaux National Cemetery is home to the bodies of soldiers who died for France in the First Battle of the Marne (September 1914). Created in the aftermath of the fighting, the cemetery was redone in 1921, then in 1929. This cemetery holds a total of 225 French soldiers, with 193 of those in the ossuary. It is located on the very battlegrounds of September 1914.

At the end of the fighting in Courgivaux on 6 and 7 September 1914, civilians were frequently required to bury the dead lying around the village. Over several days, they were buried in mass graves while the officers were buried in individual graves. Collective graves were used until 1915, but the use of individual graves also spread. Furthermore, the law of 29 December 1915 allowed soldiers who died for France to be buried in individual graves. The Courgivaux cemetery is typical of military cemeteries from the beginning of the First World War, and also of the way French military authorities dealt with death.

The remains of Sergeant Gustave Valmont lie in the ossuary. He was a student at the Lycée Condorcet in Paris, and went on to become a philosopher and poet, yet only wrote one volume of poetry, L’Aile de l’Amour (1911). At the time of the French mobilisation of 1914, he abandoned a novel he had begun to write, and joined the 274th Infantry Regiment. On 6 September, he died during a reconnaissance mission.

Sergeant K.H. Harris is also buried there, who was killed on 13 June 1940 at 23 years of age.

 

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Courgivaux
À l’ouest de Sézanne, N 4

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Eléments remarquables

Monument aux morts 1914-1918 et 1939-1945

Neuilly-Saint-Front national cemetery

La nécropole nationale de Neuilly-Saint-Front. © Guillaume Pichard

 

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This national military cemetery, that brings together almost 2,100 bodies, contains the remains of French soldiers who died in the fighting that took place in the region in 1918. From the Great War, 2,039 French soldiers buried in two ossuaries, 22 Britons including 11 who are non-identified, four civilians and a Russian lie there. The bodies of 29 soldiers who died for France in 1939-1945 also lie there.

One of the most emblematic monuments of this conflict is erected here, a place that symbolises the second French assault on the Marne: the ghosts of Oulchy-le-Château. The work by the French sculptor of Polish origin, Paul Landowski, depicts ghosts keeping watch over a landscape that today is at peace. Seven dead soldiers, with empty eyes, in the middle of whom appears the naked figure of a hero and martyr, are a reminder of the suffering of the soldiers who died in July 1918.

 

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Neuilly-Saint-Front
Au bord de la D4 avant d'entrer dans le bourg

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The "Les Chesneaux" national cemetery at Château-Thierry

La nécropole nationale Les Chesneaux. © ECPAD

 

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Located at "Les Chesneaux", this national cemetery contains the remains of 2,103 soldiers who died in the fighting that took place in the area in 1918. This cemetery was arranged in order to bring together the bodies of soldiers exhumed from isolated graves or various temporary cemeteries. Around 2,088 bodies from the Great War, including 698 in two ossuaries, are gathered here. Nine Britons including two unknown soldiers, a member of the British Red Cross assigned to the French army and four Russians also lie here.

In May 1918, General Foch turned to Pershing in order to quickly avail of military support from the United States, which had joined the war in April 1917. Two divisions were deployed in the Château-Thierry region in order to contain the enemy advance. For most of these men, it was a baptism of fire. On 4 June, at the cost of significant losses, the movement was halted and, on 6 June, the 2nd American division (DIUS) took over, in the Bois Belleau in particular.

At Château-Thierry, an imposing memorial, Rock of the Marne, was inaugurated in 1933, in memory of the offensive of 18 July 1918 during the second battle of the Marne. Built by the architect Paul Philippe Cret, assisted by Achille-Henri Chauquet, it is a reminder of the commitment of the Americans alongside the French during the second battle of the Marne, notably on Hill 204.

Only two soldiers from the Second World War are buried here: Charles de Rouge, officer cadet with the 1st tank battalion, who died on 10 June 1940 (grave n° 1378) and lieutenant Pierre Charles Pain (grave 585).

 

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Château-Thierry
Entre la rue Léon Lhermitte et la rue Massure-aux-Lièvres

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Summary

Eléments remarquables

Monument "le Linceul" œuvre du sculpteur Jacopin qui a représenté un soldat du 1er empire, abandonné aux corbeaux